1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of and a system for image processing and a computer program for image processing, and more particularly to a method of and a system for image processing in which an image analysis processing is carried out by the use of the image of an object, and a computer program for causing a computer to execute the image analysis.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been put into practice to output and view a digital image on a screen. The image has generally undergone image processing to facilitate viewing the image. For example, in the medical field, when a medical image for image diagnosis is output on the screen, generally the medical image undergoes image processing such as gradation processing or frequency processing so that the disease can be easily viewed.
Recently, images has come to be easily transmitted and received through a network as the spread of standard such as DICOM.
Under such a condition, cases where processed images (images which has undergone image processing) are stored for subsequent reuse are increased. With increase of such cases, there are an increasing number of cases where processed images and unprocessed images (images which has undergone no image processing) mingle in an object of analysis comprising images which are to be analyzed and undergoes a predetermined image processing. For example, in so-called CAD (computer-aided diagnosis), digital medical images are analyzed with a computer in order to extract disease from the digital medical images as disclosed, for instance, in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20020062075. There is sometimes a case where the medical images to be the object of the CAD include images which have been at least once read and undergoes gradation processing or frequency processing for enhancing anatomical structures or their edges to facilitate reading in addition to normal unprocessed images.
The image analysis has been optimized for images of predetermined properties (gradation properties, frequency properties or the like) and generally has been optimized for unprocessed images. When the image analysis is carried out on a processed image which has undergone image processing and accordingly is not adapted to the image analysis, the analyzing result can be adversely affected. For example, when the CAD is executed on a medical image which has undergone the gradation processing for enlarging the contrast between bones and soft parts, the edges of the bones can be mistaken for diseased parts.